UNRWA image displayed globally in solidarity with the Palestinian people

An iconic image will be displayed on buildings around the world to mark the UN’s International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

To mark the climax of the UN’s International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an iconic image from UNRWA’s newly digitized archive is being displayed on buildings in eight cities across the world: Bangkok, Beirut, Dubai, Jakarta, Marrakesh, New York, Seville, Tokyo and Vienna.

As part of this campaign, on Tuesday evening next week starting at 1830, a huge version of the image of an UNRWA student dating from 1983 will be projected for six hours on the UNHQ building in New York. This is all part of UNRWA’s “Building Solidarity” campaign aimed at highlighting the unresolved political plight of Palestinian refugees, who are among them some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

Speaking about the event Chris Gunness, UNRWA Spokesman, said,

“Given the tumultuous events in the Middle East region, such as the siege of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus in Syria’s ongoing civil war and the conflict in Gaza, it is more important than ever to show solidarity with the Palestinians, particularly the refugees. Through the direct provision of services, UNRWA has been doing this for 65 years. We do it every day by educating some half a million Palestine refugee children, we do it through the provision of primary health care to millions of the most disadvantaged people across the Middle East. We also have extensive emergency programmes in all five areas of our operations, which include Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank as well as Gaza and Syria. All these programmes need sustained support from the international community both political and financial.

The “Building Solidarity” campaign also aims to showcase UNRWA’s archive of around half a million images, whose unique contribution has been recognized by UNESCO, which awarded it “Memory of the World” status, given to collections of outstanding historical, intellectual, aesthetic and cultural value.”

UNRWA has digitized over 300,000 images (67%) from its archive, some of which date back to 1948 and the Nakba or catastrophe, as the Palestinians call their original displacement. The Agency is making these images available on line to journalists, writers, scholars and members of the public, anyone interested in the long and still unresolved question of the Palestine refugees and the development of UNRWA’s services over six decades.